The most of the time she had been moved about without knowing toward what her efforts were converging, like a whirling wheel which knows only its immediate environments and is ignorant of the machinery as a whole and the class of production to which it contributes.
Ulysses marveled at the grotesque and dubious proceedings employed by the agents of the spy system.
"But that is like the paper novels! They are ridiculous and worn-out measures that any one can learn from books and melodramas." Freya assented.

For that very reason they were employing them.

The surest way of bewildering the enemy was to avail themselves of obvious methods; thus the modern world, so intelligent and subtle, would refuse to believe in them.

By simply telling the truth, Bismarck had deceived all European diplomacy, for the very reason that nobody was expecting the truth from his lips.
German espionage was comporting itself like the personages in a political novel, and people consequently could not seem to believe in it,--although it was taking place right under their eyes,--just because its methods appeared too exaggerated and antiquated.
"Therefore," she continued, "every time that France uncovers a part of our maneuvers, the opinion of the world which believes only in ingenious and difficult things ridicules it, considering it attacked with a delirium of persecution." Women for some time past had been deeply involved in the service of espionage.

There were many as wise as the doctor, as elegant as Freya, and many venerable ones with famous names, winning the confidence that illustrious dowagers inspire.